Since increasing amounts of airline baggage are being lost, or at least cannot be picked up by the passengers at the destination airport because, for example, the airline baggage has been loaded in the wrong machine, it is desirable for many airline passengers to know whether their baggage is on board the aircraft that they have entered, or at least that it will be available at the destination airport. Even if the baggage has accidentally not been placed on board, it is comforting for the airline passenger to be provided with more detailed information about what has happened to his airline baggage, without subsequently having to tediously search for it himself. On the other hand, there are also situations in which the airline baggage disappears for various reasons or is stolen on the transport route between check-in and the sorting destination, or else from the sorting installation, without having to be removed from the sorting process for operational reasons, and without there being any capability prior to this to know why it is missing. Overall, this results in an uncertain situation.